Madrid Spain.- The start of production of the 229 tons of Hola coffee demanded by the regulated basket in Havana has been notably affected in the José María Pérez Base Business Unit (UEB), known as the 8 Vías roaster.
As stated to Tribune of Havana Yosdany Álvarez Viera, director of said unit, the main reasons are the constant blackouts and the lack of lithographed polypropylene for product packaging.
Given the considerable delay, “we have organized consecutive shifts of 24 hours, three consecutive shifts, considering the issue of electricity, because we are also part of the affectation,” said Álvarez Viera.
For his part, the plant manager Miguel Folgueiras Santana specified in this regard that when the electrical service is suspended from ten in the morning to two in the afternoon, the workers prepare to resume work at two, but that the factory is “of continuous flow, due to its capacity of 15 tons per day”, and “it has a roasting and grinding coverage that demands eight-hour shifts”.
The lack of adequate packaging has also affected production, since another type of paper is being used as an alternative but, being of low density, “the packaging machines had to be adapted and a performance of 50-55 packages per minute had to be reduced at 35-40”.
This is not the first time that the regime has justified the problems in coffee deliveries with the delay in the arrival of imported paper for packaging.
For several years, the monthly quota of four ounces per person (coffee mixed with peas) has been difficult to meet. To complete the 24,000 annual tons of domestic consumption, it is necessary to import some 8,000 tons of low quality, but until 2020 several brands of good Cuban coffee and other foreign ones were sold in stores for hard currency (CUC). With the Ordering Task, since January 1, 2021, coffee has been disappearing even from stores selling in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC).
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